Deputy, former Toulon chief to retire

Friday

Mar 8, 2013 at 8:00 AM

Open house Sunday at fire station

Tammy Wilkinson

After more than 30 years in law enforcement, Robert Taylor is hanging up his gun belt and holster and stepping down from his patrol duties.The former Toulon police chief and current Stark County Sheriff’s deputy is retiring, and an open house is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the community room in the Toulon Fire Department. After graduating from AlWood High School, Taylor became interested in emergency services and volunteered as a firefighter in Andover in the mid 1970s. Later he became Andover’s ESDA coordinator and a worker for Red Cross Disaster Services, while working a full-time job with the railroad. As ESDA coordinator he worked closely with Woodhull’s ESDA coordinator, Jimmy Wayne, who was the town police chief. In 1979 Taylor quit his job with the railroad to work at Pearson’s in Galva. He regularly stopped in Woodhull to visit with Wayne on his route home. “In the fall of 1979 he (Jimmy Wayne) handed me a grocery sack with a gun and ammo and told me to report for firearms training the next morning in the Quad Cities,” said Taylor. “That started my career in law enforcement as a part-time officer in Woodhull. I sort of liked it and a few months later I also went to work as a part-time officer in Cambridge.” When Pearson’s went out of business in 1982 Taylor decided to pursue a full-time career in law enforcement. In February of 1983, he became a part-time officer in Toulon and began training as police chief. He became chief two months later when Chief Glenn Engstrom retired. Taylor was Toulon’s police chief from 1983 until 2010. He has been a deputy for the past couple of years.Taylor said he has seen many changes over the years, especially with the stiffer penalties that are enforced now against offenders. Early in his career, he said, an officer was more apt to write a warning ticket for violations rather than making an arrest, and juvenile problems were more commonly solved through direct parental involvement. “It’s not an unusual routine nowadays for an officer to lead a kid out of school in handcuffs following an incident. That was something that was very rarely, if ever, an occurrence when I first became a police officer,” said Taylor. At 62, Taylor has been looking forward to spending more time with his family and friends, and pursing a couple of hobbies such fishing and hand-crafting American flutes and related musical instruments.